Michael Lark will draw the Cabal one-shot, while Olivier Coipel will draw Siege. Both are written by Bendis. He says the storyline will bring a “seismic shift” in the Avengers titles on the level of what happened in Avengers: Disassembled and will reunite Thor, Iron Man and Captain America.

Siege was just one of several subjects Butler asked Bendis about; he also talked about Powers, various Marvel films, Fortune & Glory‘s 10th anniversary edition and much more. Check out the second part of the interview below (he talks about Siege at the very end) and go here to find the first half.

Tick Tockin

Seriously, you DON’T want mega-events??? After coming back from counter-Earth, here’s what the alternate reality version of you “fans” are saying, where Marvel AND DC DIDN’T have the mega-events these past couple of years:

Fan 1: Why doesn’t anything exciting happen in comics anymore?!?
Fan 2: Yeah! All we get are these stupid self-contained 2 arc stories. When are we gonna see another DC Crisis? When will Marvel actually do stories with real consequences?
Fan 3: Wouldn’t it be cool if you had a story that affected the whole Marvel U, like if an evil despot who pretended to be good rose to power and was in charge of America, but protected by the law? That would affect every book, and then we’d get to see crossovers and tie-ins again! I miss those.
Fan 4: Yeah, we can still dream though…
Fan 1: Seriously, comics are like $0.99! That’s too cheap. I guess you get what you pay for, though!
Fan 2: I tell ya, ever since Dan Didio took over Marvel, I wish he’d shake things up, like have something exciting happen with the X-Men…there’s too many mutants! If ONLY something would happen that would reduce the amount of mutants to oh say, just under 100. Imagine the story potential! Or imagine if the heroes turned against each other over a moral dilemma that split the Marvel U right down the middle. Or imagine if the Hulk just went crazy and starting destroying things just because! Or imagine if shapeshifting aliens infiltrated Earth, and not even the heroes could tell who’s who! I could just die just THINKING of the excitement!
Fan 4: You mad, mad fool! To even consider such wonderful plots is the HEIGHT of insanity!
Fan 3: Yeah, Joe Q isn’t doing much better with DC! They should bring back the Hal Jordan and Green Lantern Corps, that’s what’s really missing. And wouldn’t it be cool if we could get…
Fan 2: What are you thinking, you mad hatter?
Fan 3: I daren’t say.
Fan 1: You must, for I cannot bear the anticipation!
Fan 3: …I know I’m going beyond the realm of the impossible, but wouldn’t it be cool if we could get our comics in a weekly format, and ON TIME?!
Fan 4: BLASPHEMER! YOU DARE INVOKE IMPOSSIBILITIES WE CAN ONLY BUT DREAM OF! BEGONE!
– SIGH – Perhaps, somewhere out there, in another reality, they enjoy exciting comics that have multiple crossovers and tie-ins, mega events every year, where characters do exciting, unexpected things, instead of what we always ask the creators to have them do. Alas, we can only dream of such comics…

That’s what they’re saying on counter-Earth. So take heart whining fanboys, for they share your pain, in an alternate universe kind of way.

Chris

The timing of these event comics need to be better, I think is what we’re saying. Going back to 2006, we’ve had Civil War, Annihilation, World War Hulk, Annihilation: Conquest, Secret Invasion, War of Kings, Dark Reign (technically not an “event,” but whatever), etc… that’s a lot of events. Especially now that we know there’s going to be ANOTHER event.
If there were a big event every two or three years, I think that would be much better for everyone. Face it, there comes a point where people stop shelling out money for event LS and tie-in books…

DrunkJack

Rikk Odinson

As long as Dark Reign is over and Thor, Cap and Iron Man are The Avengers again, I could give a rats ass about how many events and x-overs there are. ALL I want from Marvel is to have my 3 favorite heroes together under The Avengers banner again.

Truth

Don Bagert

The last appearance in continuity of Thor, Iron Man, and the Steve Rogers Cap in action together was actually 5 (not 10) years ago in Thor Vol 2 #81, during the Ragarnok storyline. Thor last appeared with Tony and Steve in an Avengers comic in Avengers Vol 3 #63 (2003), and left the Avengers at that time. Still, it seems like it’s been a lot longer…

Moet

The problem I’ve had with Marvel for the past few years, is just the pacing of these events, and the aftermath. Civil War came out, and the Initative lasted for a year. Then Secret Invasion came, and now the Dark Reign lasted for a year. I still feel that the Initative could’ve lasted longer, but Marvel feels that they have to move constantly change the status quo. I don’t get this feeling from reading DC, which is why I’m buying Blackest Night.

Ortiz

Four issues sounds great, now, all I want to know is how many friggin’ tie-ins this thing is gonna have, I hope, HOPE, only a few one-shots, and even that is too much, just with the Avengers titles sounds fine to me. It’s time to kick some Normy-a$$, baby!!

Peace.

Preston

I knew Bendis had something to do with this when JMS first mentioned Siege because they hyped the FCBD Avengers one-shot that he wrote as integral to the future of the MU, which involved an Asgardian artifact and Thor.

Alex

I haven’t read any ‘New’ Avengers books in years. After Civil War I realized that they were basically promising stuff they were never or could never pull off. It just goes on and on and so many of the characters didnt’ seem anythinglike themselves. But I’m interested in any ‘Dark’, ‘New’, or Mighty. The ‘Avengers’ are gone and so are some of the other Marvel books to me. I still don’t see the need to have a book where still nothing happens.

@jizmopper

karl

jesus, i mean these are soap operas we read, of course they will drag on forever, if you dont like it there are plenty of comics for you to read, but superhero books are fun because of the shared continuity and things that affect the entire universe…… and civil war is STILL having huge effects, and i doubt the initiative/registration/underground avengers will be going away just because norman osborn does!

im kinda bummed its ending so soon, to be honest, ive been loving all the villians in charge books!

God, please let it be the last event for some time.
I’m definitely thinking about not buying the series, because as long as sales are high, one event will follow another.
No, thinking about it, I’ll not buy the book, unless it is clear that there will be no more events after it for some time.

Mark_S

Stuck_e

My first comment was in no way complaining. I am Looking forward to this story and I have enjoyed Dark Reign as well as the other Event stories over the past few years, they have been really close together, and had slip ups on the way. I as a consumer would love the smaller story arcs right now and I never once bitched about them when we had them. I do have my gripes about things but I don’t get my BP up over it, these are comics after all. I have bigger things to worry about in life than why this tie-in sucked and why this was written this way.

That said, in a time when the dollar is getting weaker and weaker, and it is harder and hard for us all to pay the bills and still be able to buy the books we want, I just feel (and I may be wrong here) that it would be better to have a year or so of smaller 4 arc stories not crossing over into other books or having 3 oneshots to finish the arc . But hay that is just my opinion.

Barkats

Don’t get me wrong. I love Brian Bendis. I loved Ultimate Spider-Man. I love New Avengers. But I feel like he’s carrying too much of Marvel on his shoulders. Much like Geoff Johns at DC, I loved Teen Titans, and his Flash stuff, and his GL stuff. But the great thing about comics is versatility. And these two writers must be quivering at the knees. I’ve seen way too much Norman Osborn. I dropped at least 10 of my Marvel books because it would just be Norman Osborn sitting behind his desk with his feet up and a loose green tie. I’m excited to see him loose his marbles in Dark Avengers, but there comes a point where it just gets to be too much. It was a really cool concept, but they beat us over the head with it. Now it’s great because this looks like its bringing it to an end. But these guys are relativley new to the game, right? About 9 years into it. Marvel n DC should be using their cash to test out new writers on different books all the time. And give the big shots their respective blockbusters.

Shaun

I actually liked Civil War (well, not how it ended… And un-doing Spidey’s unmasking via Mephisto sure sucked, but I did like the concept), WW Hulk, and I even enjoyed Secret Invasion in a silly, popcorn movie kind of way. Dark Reign? I’ve only read the titles I would normally read, so it’s Captain America (which was never really a Dark Reign book), Iron Man and New Avengers. I bought Dark Avengers too, just because I liked the idea of it.

I’ve been looking to drop New and Dark Avengers both because of the $3.99 price, so the end of Dark Reign seems the right time to do that. I’m guessing Dark Avengers will end with Dark Reign anyhow? I would think so, though I haven’t actually heard. I’m sure there will be a bunch of Siege one-shots or spinoffs, but like Secret Invasion I’ll just stick with the books I’d normally buy anyhow, leaving me with just Cap and Iron Man. Maybe neither, since I’m strongly considering dropping them and switching to trades for both titles.